Hyderabad: A former NTPC employee who pretended to be an official of the District Rural Development Authority allegedly cheated four MPs, seven MLAs and other politicians and looted money from them.
Police said that he told them about schemes of the TS government and asked them to deposit money for registration. Alwal police arrested the culprit after getting a complaint from a representative of the Malkajgiri MLA. The accused, Thota Balaji Naidu alias Laxman Mahesh, 37, looted Rs 1 to Rs 2 lakh from each of the MLAs and MPs in the name of government schemes.
The Hyderabad police arrested him last year for cheating an MP in the same way. But he came out on bail and targeted Malkajgiri MLA C. Kanaka Reddy and duped him of Rs 90,000. “He told the MLA that the TS government had 50 per cent subsidy schemes for purchasing cars, setting up dairy farms, provision stores etc, and asked him to pay Rs 90,000 for enrolling 300 members (Rs 300 per member) in the Kutumba Sankshema Abhivrudhi Nidhi,” said DCP Rama Rajeshwari.
“Thota gave a bank account number where Rs 90,000 was deposited by the MLA. Later he did not send confirmation about membership for the amount paid and it was revealed that no such person is working at the TS Secretariat and that there was no such scheme,” the DCP said.
The Malkajgiri MLA said that he could not attend the call when Thota called. “I was in a meeting when Thota called me. So I gave the phone to my new PA. He deposited the money immediately. Later, when I checked with the collector we realised that it was a fraud,” said Mr Kanaka Reddy.
The other politicians whom he cheated are Botsa Satyanarayana, ex-PCC president, M.P. Malla Reddy (MP), T. Devender Goud (MP), Pallavai Gorverdhan Reddy (MP), P. Srinivas Reddy (MP), Krishna Reddy (MLA), Mandali Buddha Prasad (MLA), D. Narendhre Choudary (MLA), B. Bixam-aiaha Goud, (MLA), K. Veerabhadra Swamy, (MLA) and D. Venkat-ashwar Rao (MLA).
